Happy Birthday!

Today is Brian Kim's 23rd birthday!


Head over to our MySpace page and leave him some love!

- Vince

p.s. I know some of you asked about this tee, and no, it never went into production in this colorway. Yet. :)

Graphic Designer Needed!

As most of you know, Matt and I not only run LOUD& OBNOXIOUS but we also run a screen printing company called GLAD RAGS INK. We offer screen printing services to anyone that needs custom apparel and it keeps us pretty busy. So busy that it has become increasingly harder to find time to keep LOUD& OBNOXIOUS going as actively as we want. It explains a lot of things, like why the website isn't completely finished and why the Weekly Winter 08 never really happened (sorry about that).

Both of our companies are still small-scale operations and we work very hard every day to keep both growing, but since L&O was born from GRink, the screen printing company takes precedence and is currently our top priority. Up to this point, our friends have been very supportive of our endeavors and we thank them wholeheartedly. They're the ones you see on the blog occasionally who help us in the warehouse with any task that we need (especially Nancy, Krista K, Kris G, Chuck, Justin, & Franky).

With that being said, the time has come for us to find people with more particular skills. I give you our first official "job opening"/internship:


GRAPHIC DESIGNER

- Proficiency in Adobe programs, mainly Photoshop and Illustrator
- Demonstrate a clear understanding of existing and potential customer base
- Ability to create unique and original graphics for overall brand image
- Must be self motivated and able to work effectively
- Must be an open minded team player
- Displays initiative and innovation on the job
- Preferably Southern California resident

Another important point: if you have a basic knowledge of screen printing techniques or how to properly prepare graphics for print, that would be a huge plus. Don't worry though, if you don't then we can help train you for that. Bottom line, we're just looking for someone who is down to be a part of something that could potentially become a bigger operation but also has the skills that we need to help us make it to that point. We have TONS of ideas for new shirts and new concepts, but we just need the help of a graphic designer to bring them to life.

Also, if you are looking to do a lot of freelance design work, our screen printing company (GRink) has a growing client base (schools, bands, churches, businesses, etc.) that is always looking to us for designs for their apparel that we print.

SERIOUS INQUIRIES ONLY!
If interested, please send an email to email@loudobnoxious.com with some information about yourself, past graphic design work, and portfolios. If you've got a resume, even better!

We look forward to hearing from all of you awesome graphic designers out there! We need you!

- Vince

Back to Basics

If you were at the Dunkxchange this past weekend, you may have noticed that we weren't there! I know that this quarter's DXC theme was "Back to Basics" and that totally fits in with our mentality, but that's exactly why we couldn't make it to DXC this past weekend. We were at the annual Imprinted Sportswear Show (ISS) in Long Beach, CA trying to soak up as much information and knowledge as possible.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to take my camera inside the convention since photography and video is not allowed at all, but I'll try to give you the rundown. The mood is much, much different in comparison to MAGIC. Everyone is much friendlier, more informative, nerdier, less trendy, and my favorite - MORE D-I-Y! It was definitely a much needed trip for us not only because of the learning aspect but because we were able to once again visualize where we could be in the next 2-5 years. The behind-the-scenes of the screen printing industry is incredible and we're stoked to be a part of it, both from a manufacturer and retailer's point of view.

At first, I felt pretty damn small when I walked onto the show floor and saw all these giant name brands and monstrous automatic printing presses. It can be a daunting feeling knowing that it's going to take so much more capital to become a giant company. But it also takes time. And that's something that we've always been comfortable with and I think a lot of people overlook. So maybe your business doesn't explode or "blow up" in the first year - so what? I've always believed that if you never give up, you can never fail. And if you never give up, it's only a matter of time before you achieve your goal. It may take longer than most, or it might be an overnight success. Who knows? The only thing that is certain is that if you at least have enough passion to not give up and find ways to not let anything get the best of you, then only time will tell when you get yours.


Our favorite vendor of ISS: RYONET (AKA www.silkscreeningsupplies.com). We also dubbed their booth the "D.I.Y." booth because they were one of the most informative and most knowledgeable booths we had come across at the entire show. Fun fact: Matt ordered our first screen printing supplies and equipment from their website. They had one of the smaller booths but they put their space to use by offering free tutorials and demonstrations on basic to advanced screen printing techniques. These guys have their shit down and they're not afraid to share it with everyone, which is a rare commodity these days. Thanks to Ryan for his help and advice!

- Vince

p.s. Happy Chinese New Year! Go Ox!
p.p.s. Oh, hey Winter. Nice of you to show up in Southern California again! Hope you had a nice vacation, jerk!

Fix Your Face

Earlier this week, Matt's first fixie track bike arrived at the office. I don't know much about bikes so I'm not going to pretend like I do, but all I know is that it's super light and the ride is incredibly smooth. Definitely a fun little investment to save some gas, get some exercise, and roll with your friends.


Our next-door neighbors here at the warehouse hooked Matt up with some sweet LED lights. Let us know if you're interested in any of those!




What has 28 wheels and doesn't give a crap?


These guys..

- Vince

Bojangles!

If you've been keeping up, you already know that we love to get our RAGE on. And it's about that time again. Our good friend Man-o-lo will be opening up a new club night in LA on Thursday Feb. 5th called BOJANGLES. We'll be throwing tees out at some point during the night and a few of our friends will be pumpin' out the jams on the 1's and 2's. Photobooth by our beloved photographer David (DAM.it)! Bottom line, come out and have a good time with us! We'd be honored to rage with you.


For more info, please visit myspace.com/clubbojangles!

- Vince

Feelin' the Love

Just wanted to take this opportunity to thank everyone who ordered from us in our first week debuting on Karmaloop Kazbah! Your support makes us feel so loved and we greatly appreciate it! We're still a very young company and every day we are always growing up, learning new things, and making mistakes and it means a lot to us for you guys to dig what we're doing. We hope you all enjoy your new shirts because we definitely enjoyed packaging and shipping them!


Check out the receipt from the Post Office. The lady and everyone in line at the P.O. definitely hate my guts.


Thanks everyone. Your support shows us that there's still hope for small businesses all around our country. This guy gives us some hope too.


- Vince

p.s. I swear I will update all the pages on this website! Sorry!

His Story

How fitting that today is the day we honor a man who stood up for what he believed and proclaimed his "dream" of hope and change; and tomorrow a man will become President to turn hope and change into a reality.


You must be the change you wish to see in the world.
- Mahatma Gandhi

- Vince

Earn Your Keep

Do you guys like discounts? Who doesn't?! Well I've got a little deal for you. We've decided to reward all the people who have supported us so far on KARMALOOP KAZBAH by giving you all a special REWARD DISCOUNT code towards our own ONLINE SHOP. The discount will be worth 25% OFF on everything we have here on our website and it will ONLY be available to our first customers on KARMALOOP KAZBAH. Some of you may have already received a special email from me since you ordered from us on Karmaloop between Tuesday and today. Congrats and enjoy!

For all of you who haven't ordered from us on Karmaloop yet, DON'T WORRY! Anyone who orders between now and Sunday evening can still earn their REWARD DISCOUNT! So hurry on over to our KARMALOOP KAZBAH page and order something before Monday!


- Vince

Flavor of the Week: Fresh & Easy

When we first started this blog, we had this weekly thing going on called "Flavor of the Week" and for some reason we just forgot about it. Well since it is a new year I'm going to try and bring this sucka back.

This week's Flavor - FRESH & EASY Neighborhood Markets


If you live in California, Nevada, or Arizona, you may have already noticed these places popping up and you may have already gone there, meaning you may already know of the amazingness that lies within. Fresh & Easy's mission is to literally make it easy for anyone in the neighborhood to access their fresh products in a local market at super affordable prices.


They have new deals every single day and they keep their store and location very neat, organized, and clean. All the employees are very friendly and helpful but not to the point where it gets annoying or awkward. One of the reasons why everything at the store is so "fresh" is because when it gets closer to closing time each day, they begin marking down all the fresh food in the store! It's incredible. For example, on one recent trip, my girlfriend and I purchased two packages of mushroom ravioli, a loaf of rosemary bread, a jar of alfredo sauce, a can of pork & beans, and a 4 pack of polish sausage for only about $8.00! I think at about 7PM they start making their rounds and marking everything down because they just want to get rid of their stock so that the next day will have just as fresh products as the last.


Fresh & Easy also sells a lot of their own brand of products as you can see in the photo above. They keep it very simple with their house brand all the way from the ingredients to the packaging. The packaging and graphic design of the whole store and its products is definitely one of my favorite parts of Fresh & Easy. They also do a great job of being environmentally efficient by recycling and reusing all the cardboard boxes for their display units and using LED lights throughout the store to reduce energy consumption. Oh yeah, they've also got a GIANT array of solar panels on top of the roof to collect sunlight during the day reducing their electricity usage by 30% - much less than any other supermarket.

To find out where Fresh & Easy is located and to learn more about what they do, just visit their website at www.freshandeasy.com! I definitely recommend this store for everyone!

- Vince
(photos courtesy of the world wide web)

We Salute You

Today our good friend Mark Honrado will be leaving for basic training in the US Army. It's always so bittersweet to have a friend go and serve our country because you don't want them to leave but you also know that they'll be doing something incredible and meaningful with their lives. One of the books I've read called Tuesdays With Morrie had a quote that sums it up well.

So many people walk around with a meaningless life. They seem half-asleep, even when they're busy doing things they think are important. This is because they're chasing the wrong things. The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning.

I completely agree with this statement and I've always tried to live my life with that sort of mentality in mind. I mean, what is the point of us being here anyway? I hardly think that the reason we're here on Earth is to simply go through life without any purpose whatsoever. In my opinion, it just makes no sense to live a life unfulfilled.

We recently had a surprise dinner at Sakura of Tokyo in West Covina, CA so that everyone could see him one last time before he goes and give him our love.



























I know that I speak for all of our friends when I say that we are so proud of you, Mark, and your decision. You are truly giving your life purpose and meaning and completely devoting yourself to the ones you love and to your community around you. You are an amazing person and we will definitely miss you! You better write us! And don't you ever forget that you'll always us have us - your FAMILY! We'll always be here no matter what. We love you!

Godspeed and good luck.

- Vince

They've Actually Gotten Worse LIVE!

If you haven't already noticed, we are now officially LIVE on the KARMALOOP KAZBAH and our account has been launched. Check out our debut news feed on KarmaloopTV.com's The Daily Loop:


And, as I've been saying all week, we are releasing the final pressing of the 'Fast Times' tee exclusively through KARMALOOP KAZBAH. If you missed out on it before, this is your last chance to get a piece of L&O history (it was our first shirt ever printed). Wake up! No sleep!


We also updated the KARMALOOP KAZBAH page with all that's left from the recent Winter/Fall 08 releases. There are only a few pieces left in each design and in each size so grab it now before it's gone!

Big thanks to Dennis and Chelsea for all their help launching us on Karmaloop! Thanks for noticing us and giving us a chance!

- Vince

Good Karma

Fear no more, updates have come! It looks like we will be going LIVE on Karmaloop Kazbah starting TOMORROW and guess what - you're the first to know! Our launch with Karmaloop begins tomorrow and also features the exclusive release of the final pressing of the infamous 'Fast Times' tee. This release and this colorway will ONLY be available on our Karmaloop Kazbah account so DO NOT SLEEP!


We'll also be updating our Karmaloop Kazbah account with more pieces from our Winter 08 collection as well as the remaining pieces from our huge Fall 08 drop a few months ago.






DO NOT SLEEP!

- Vince

Marketing is the New Hype

I just saw this today on a few other blogs and thought it was too genius and hilarious not to talk about it. Burger King is currently running this new marketing campaign where if you delete 10 of your friends on Facebook, Burger King will send a coupon to you for a FREE Whopper. Outta control! Check it out the "Whopper Sacrifice" HERE.


I'm not a huge fan of Burger King or anything, but I just love when companies come up with these creative ways to keep people talking about them. It's the stunts like these that make these companies so memorable and unforgettable. I don't like Burger King that much, but here I am talking about them and I'm pretty sure you will be too. All they wanted was for more and more people to keep talking about their crazy antics and get a taste of their burger. Mission accomplished. And yes, I did participate and earned my free Whopper. Goodbye, random Facebook friends.

We've got a couple clever/controversial marketing campaigns up our sleeves for this year. Just keep watching. You'll see.

- Vince

Bad News Bears

Got a little bit of bad news for today.

If you've ever been to our office, you may have met Buddy. He was living on my desk and keeping me company ever since we moved into this place. Unfortunately after we got back from vacation, we found him at the bottom of his fishbowl and we're not sure what happened! I fed him before we went on vacation, but it seems like he has a problem with his left fin preventing him from swimming around to eat and enjoy his fishy life. It doesn't look like he will be pulling through so keep him in your thoughts! Poor fella.


As for our upcoming debut on Karmaloop Kazbah, I'm not exactly sure when we will be going LIVE but I will keep you as updated as possible! We are working hard with the good people over at Karmaloop to get it posted as soon as possible, just need to work out a couple kinks before we go LIVE. Thanks for your patience! If you are just tuning in, read the last couple entries below to find out what all the commotion is about.

- Vince

Holiday Recap

First things first, don't forget about our upcoming KARMA LOOP KAZBAH debut release THIS WEEK. It might be tomorrow, it might be Thursday. This colorway of the FAST TIMES tee will ONLY be available on our Karma Loop account so keep checking back for the release THIS WEEK!



Anyway, I've got a ton of photos piled up from the recent Holiday vacation. Here's the highlights:

Huge thanks to Olivia and Melanie for being amazing and bringing us food every now and then. This time around we were treated with home-made lasagna, salad, and french bread. You ladies are the best!




Jaimee and I accompanied her sister and her friend to the Getty Center. The museum was jam packed with families and beautiful visuals, inside and out.














Happy birthday Jaimee! My lovely lady has to wait all year to celebrate her day of birth on December 31st.


The annual New Years Eve celebration at the Apostol residence - the humble place where Matt and I grew up and the dumpy little garage where GLAD RAGS INK and LOUD& OBNOXIOUS were born. Cheers, 2009!
























This past weekend, we decided to have a cozy little movie night at Daniel's house. Hooray for projectors and hot cocoa/coffee!




And last but certainly not least, I introduce Filbert Apostol.


The newest addition to our family. For the past couple years, he's been visiting our house but recently his original owners were evicted from their house and just left him without a home. He started coming over a lot more and eventually I just fell in love with him and now he stays with us. I've never really liked cats, but he's different. He's chill and just wants to hang out. Nicest cat ever.


Shame on all the people who abandon their pets. Karma's comin' to get you.

- Vince